Trust building in supply chain partners relationship: an integrated conceptual model

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated conceptual trust building model for supply chain partners’ relationships. It is based on the literature on trust building models from various disciplines. Design/methodology/approach – Various trust building concepts and models were reviewed and five widely referred trust building models were selected from the literature to analyze and integrate the views to develop an integrated conceptual model from supply chain partners’ relationships point of view. Findings – The conceptual frame work suggests that trust is a sum of risk‐worthy characteristics, risk‐worthy rationale and risk‐worthy institutional systems of supply chain members. Though the model represents the trust building process at dyadic level, the concept can simply be extended to any number of levels and perspectives. Research limitations/implications – The model has considered the trust building perspectives from supply chain partners’ relationships point of view. The discussions of the model lead to empirically testable issues. Practical implications – The study results suggest that the supply chain members should strive to reduce the risk levels to build trust rather than striving to build trust to reduce the risk. As long as members’ risk levels are within their bearable limits trust can be considered as a risk coping mechanism and when the risk levels exceed their bearable limits the subject of trust turns into risk management/security management. Originality/value – The trust building concepts developed through this model can be used by both practitioners and researchers on the subject of trust. However the model's application is not limited to supply chain management; it can be easily adapted to any discipline of management.